Entertaining if conventionally plotted crowd-pleaser.
A Miami singing sensation has a profound impact on the women who surround him.
Ricky Biscayne is the sexy center of his own female-centric universe in Valdes-Rodriguez’s gossipy third novel (after Playing with Boys, 2004, etc.). On the cusp of national stardom with the release of his first English-language album, Ricky has undeniable charisma and talent, not to mention a not-so-hidden dark side and burgeoning drug problem. His diverse entourage includes his pregnant wife Jasminka, a war-haunted Serbian supermodel hungry for family (and food, long denied her), and his glamorous secret lover Jill Sanchez, a Puerto Rican diva even more famous than he. There is also his devoted new publicist Milan, a naïve and chubby Cuban-American who lives with her parents and would do anything to protect her idol, and her more sophisticated sister Geneva, a Harvard MBA opening a trendy club that Ricky has invested in. Rounding out the group is Ricky’s long-lost high-school sweetheart Irene, a struggling, single-mother firefighter, who reappears in his life after her teenaged daughter, Sophia, figures out that Ricky might actually be her father. It is his cruel treatment of the girl, along with other bad behavior, that finally gets to Milan, who has herself been dallying with her boss. Disillusioned by seeing the true personality of the man she once worshipped, and feeling guilty over her role in covering up for Ricky, she decides to use her publicist’s gifts for good rather than evil, and enlists the others to help her. The elaborate plan culminates on the opening night of the club when the singer is forced to face the consequences of his actions. Meanwhile, the women manage to find romance, purpose and friendships away from the toxic Lothario. The deliciously bitchy exception is calculating Jill Sanchez, who will remind readers of a certain real-life actress/singer/perfume mogul.
Entertaining if conventionally plotted crowd-pleaser.Pub Date: May 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-312-34966-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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